The tremors of a political earthquake in the national capital are spreading fast across the country. The support to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s dharna at the Lieutenant Governor’s house from the Opposition parties or the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party front is swelling with every passing day.
By Friday, when the sit-in dharna—by Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai—entered its fifth day, the AAP had already received support from three CMs and two former CMs. Nine political parties—including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)—have extended their support to the AAP in its fight against LG Anil Baijal. Considering Kejriwal’s history of making scathing comments against the traditional political parties, the Opposition’s move to support the party is an interesting development.
Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh, who seems to have been managing affairs outside the LG house, had told Newslaundry that he’d reached out to like-minded Opposition parties as Delhi is going through a critical phase. “I have spoken to Samajwadi Party’s leader Ram Gopal Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja, RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary, and Janata Dal Secular’s Danish Ali for their support to AAP’s struggle. In fact, RJD’s (Rajya Sabha) MP Manoj Jha met us and extended the party support to our movement,” Singh had told this correspondent.
सरकार द्वारा नियुक्त अधिकारी तीन दिन में पाँच मिनट, जनता द्वारा निर्वाचित मुख्यमंत्री के लिए नहीं निकाल सकता? बिना केंद्र सरकार के इशारे, और शरण के ये सम्भव नहीं। ये एक governance failure है, @ArvindKejriwal जी का नहीं जनादेश का अपमान है। #Delhi
— Jayant Chaudhary (@jayantrld) June 13, 2018
With every passing day, AAP has increased its attack on the LG and the BJP-led central government. Ever since June 11, Kejriwal and his three ministers have been sitting inside the LG’s house in Delhi’s Civil Lines. Kejriwal is demanding that LG Baijal should instruct the IAS officers’ lobby to end the partial strike that they have been carrying out for the past four months.
On Friday morning, the Delhi CM went to the extent of asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “Will you be able to run the central government even for a day if officers stop attending meetings called by you?” He further said, “You can’t run the government without officers. Then why have you backed the strike by IAS officers in Delhi?”
The IAS officers have been boycotting the meetings called by AAP cabinet ministers ever since Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was allegedly assaulted by two AAP MLAs in February, inside the CM’s residence. The IAS officers in its statement released on June 11 admitted this. AAP leader Atishi Marlena had said that this administrative deadlock has already started affecting the governance issues in the national capital and if the crisis is not resolved now, things will only get worse.
Meanwhile, AAP is set to start a campaign to send packets of rations to the PM’s office. It has also geared up to gherao the PM’s house on Sunday if the LG and the Centre fail to intervene to resolve the present administrative crisis and ask the officers to return to work.
So far AAP has been successful in mobilising the Opposition or the anti-BJP front to support its movement. While Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to PM Modi on Thursday, asking him to intervene in Delhi’s administrative crisis, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu have put out tweets in support of Kejriwal.
. @ArvindKejriwal, CM of Delhi is sitting in a dharna in LG’s office for the last few days in the capital city of the country. Elected CM must get due respect. May I appeal to the Govt of India and @LtGovDelhi to resolve the problem immediately so that people do not suffer
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) June 13, 2018
Naidu, attacking the BJP government, said, “The trend of using the Governor’s office for political benefits of the ruling party at the Centre, goes against the spirit of the Constitution.”
On Thursday, when the bizarre visuals of protestors along with BJP lawmakers waving banners at the rooftop of the Delhi Secretariat—a high-security area—surfaced on social media, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav went no holds barred against the BJP. He said that the BJP’s act of “taking siege of the Secretariat indicates towards a situation worse than the murder of democracy.”
देश की राजधानी के सचिवालय पर केंद्र के सत्ताधारी राजनीतिक दल के क़ब्ज़े की ख़बर लोकतंत्र की हत्या से भी बदतर हालात की ओर इशारा कर रही है. ये सत्ता का अहंकार है. जो आज ताक़त से जनतंत्र पर क़ब्ज़ा कर रहे हैं, वो कल जनता के घरों पर भी क़ब्ज़ा करेंगे. जनता में डर भी है और गुस्सा भी.
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) June 14, 2018
Interestingly, even parties such as the RJD and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) have extended their support to AAP. Kejriwal, during his India Against Corruption days, had made scathing attacks against RJD and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha patriarchs Lalu Prasad Yadav and Shibu Soren. And yet, their sons—Tejaswi Yadav and Hemant Soren—have chosen to stand with Kejriwal and company.
दिल्ली की जनता द्वारा अपने अधिकारों के लिए लड़ी जा रही लड़ाई को मेरा सलाम।जनता द्वारा चुनी @AamAadmiParty सरकार को इस ढंग से बार-बार अपने अधिकारों के लिए सड़क पर आने को मजबूर करना कहाँ का लोकतंत्र है? @ArvindKejriwal समेत #delhi की जनता की इस संघर्ष में झारखण्ड उनके साथ खड़ा है
— Hemant Soren (@HemantSorenJMM) June 15, 2018
दिल्ली की जनता ने 20वर्ष से BJP को दिल्ली से बेदख़ल किया हुआ है।इसलिए अब केंद्र की BJP सरकार रिकॉर्डतोड़ बहुमत से चुनी हुई @ArvindKejriwal सरकार के कामकाज मे निम्नस्तरीय दखलंदाजी कर दिल्ली की विकासप्रिय जनता से चुन-चुन कर बदला ले रही है।लोकतंत्र में ये अस्वस्थ परंपरा की शुरुआत है
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) June 14, 2018
When asked why the RJD is supporting a leader and a party who have been openly critical of them, RJD MP Manoj Jha said, “Let’s not reduce it to one person. RJD has never looked at anything through the prism of a person.” He further told Newslaundry, “Our position is on the rule of law, and that the mandate of the people has to be respected in spite of the fact whether you like that government or not … The people of Delhi didn’t vote for a government that runs on the whims and fancies of the BJP or for that matter any other political party, and through a puppet called LG.” The RJD maintains the same stand for Puducherry where the Congress-led government is facing similar problems from LG Kiran Bedi, he said.
The communist parties have been most vocal about the tussle between the AAP government and the LG. Brinda Karat, justifying the CPI(M)’s stand, told Newslaundry, “The issues that are involved are not party based, but issues that concern the democratic rights of the people of Delhi, concerning constitutional set-up of the federal structure. It is very much about the authoritarian attitude of the Modi government which we cannot tolerate. They have used the LG to try and sabotage the work being done by the collective government of AAP.”
Karat said that the fact that LG Baijal has tried to justify the IAS lobby’s decision to skip the meetings with the AAP cabinet shows that the crisis in Delhi is “clearly being planned, it’s a reflection of the attitude of the central government”.
Importantly, the TDP—the former ally of the BJP—has also openly supported the AAP and Kejriwal in their fight against the LG and the BJP. However, its reasons to support AAP also come from the fact that AAP has spearheaded a sustained campaign against the BJP. “Kejriwal was one of the first persons to oppose the BJP. He has also extended friendly support to other parties previously. He has given us his sympathies when we opposed the BJP at the Centre,” TDP spokesperson Jupudi Prabhakar Rao said. He further added, “There is going to be a new platform that is going to emerge at the national level. All the regional parties will come together to oppose the anti-democratic BJP ahead of 2019 polls.”
Even though the anti-BJP front has come together to stand in solidarity with the AAP, the Congress party has chosen to attack Kejriwal. On Friday, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Ajay Maken and former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit dubbed Kejriwal’s protest as “dharna drama”.
Dikshit said, “In our first term, the BJP was in power in the Centre. Delhi is a Union Territory, hence if Kejriwal is demanding for powers like a full state, then we must first read and understand [the constitution].”
Questioning the intention and the aims of Kejriwal’s protest, Dikshit said, “If he wants to amend the Constitution, then it’s not possible for him or the LG to do so. It is for Parliament to amend the Constitution.” It also reflects the discomfort of the Congress’ Delhi unit with the AAP, when news of the possible alliance between the two for the 2019 general elections is doing the rounds.
On the other hand, the BJP-led central government’s failure to resolve the administrative crisis in Delhi has given an opportunity to the Opposition parties to unite and march with Kejriwal—in the name of saving the democracy.
Inputs by Balaji Venkatesh Jonnalagadda.
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